A day at the Mill, Part 2: Exploring the showrooms & grounds

20th January 2017

by Zoe Parker

After all of the excitement of the beautiful new deVOL Ceramic Sinks, I went for a wander up into the wonderful showrooms. It definitely wouldn’t be a visit to Cotes Mill without having a little peek at all of the new gifts and antiques that are dotted so thoughtfully around the old floors of this building.

deVOL has been known for its kitchens for such a long time, but we are now getting quite a reputation for all of the other things we sell too. We have visitors from all over the country who will travel up here on the train, or drive down for a family day out, to check out our latest vintage products and gifts and homewares, it’s pretty cool.

And it’s really really important to us that we offer something special and something different, we don’t just want to sell anything you might find on the high street. We love to offer products that have been handmade locally by lovely people. Those cute little ‘Herons’ wooden spoons in the picture below are handcrafted in Leicestershire by a lady called Sophie, each piece is made using traditional woodworking tools, sanded smooth and finished with homemade beeswax and mineral oil balm. They make the coolest gifts.

We also like to offer items that are produced in other countries by really talented people who specialise in a particular craft. For instance, our Izola candles are made in America by a New York design company. They are not the cheapest candles but the styling and smell is unbeatable. We had one of these candles burning on our Clerkenwell Design Week stand, so many people came in and said how they’d fallen in love with our Sebastian Cox Kitchen … but more importantly they just had to know what the smell was!! Well, it was a lovely Izola candle.

And we love books and journals so much! I was very excited to have a flick through all of the new additions… we have a couple of big old refectory tables covered in a beautiful and eclectic mix of books. There is something for nearly everyone too; interior and style books filled with the most dreamy photography, children’s books with a theme of beautiful illustrations and some of the best cookery books.

We also source antiques from all over the world, and the fact that our customers can buy these beautiful antique pieces alongside their deVOL Kitchen is something so special and so unusual. I absolutely love that big old cupboard in the photo below, imagine it in your kitchen filled with all of your pantry essentials… or even in a boot room to store shoes and boots and bags.

And probably one of the best things; fresh eggs from our very own deVOL chickens. These eggs are the brightest yellow, tastiest eggs you can buy and trust me, your scrambled eggs will never be the same… I didn’t even know scrambled eggs could taste that good!

Ok this blog is getting really really long now, but I thought I’d quickly show you a couple of photos of our Sebastian Cox and Air Kitchen showrooms at Cotes Mill, as they’ve changed a little since the last time I saw them, and maybe since the last time you saw them too…

This beautiful Pantry Cupboard sits just next to the steps which lead up to the kitchen design office on the top floor of the Mill. And the beautiful new island sits right in the centre, how awesome are those woven back panels!?

A very proud display of the awards The Sebastian Cox Kitchen has achieved so far…

And then into the stunning Air Kitchen showroom where a beautiful wall of windows span the whole of one side and flood this big space with the most beautiful light, even on a cloudy day…

It’s my dream to go to LA and I’m kind of obsessed with the thought of it at the moment… so I particularly love the newly renovated Air Kitchen showroom with its bold pink walls and completely Californian cool vibe.

It’s a bohemian paradise, with big patterned cushions and pretty vintage throws sitting on old metal day beds, plants and greenery and palms everywhere, collections of random books and mismatched bits and bobs and things for your home. It’s perfect and I love it.

This is a place for our customers to come and chill out. Sophie is often pottering around making fresh coffee for everybody, and if you’re lucky she might even be baking one of her delicious cakes.

And finally down our incredible limestone staircase and into the Mill grounds.

Getting to see all of the animals and especially all of the baby animals was probably the bit I was most excited about.

The cygnets have grown up so much, they’re funny little things… not quite as cute as they used to be!

It was soooo hard to get a picture of the deer!! They took me on a run around of the grounds, I walked over to them and just as I was about to get a photo they would run and skip and bounce over to the other side of their enclosure. This happened a good few times before I managed to snatch a quick shot of them. The little fawns are too pretty for words and are getting a little bit more adventurous by the day.

I loved my day at Cotes Mill, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this little look into Mill life too. Even if you’re not in the market for a new kitchen, Cotes Mill is so worth a visit.